Anyone else finding themselves excited to go to Dürty Nelly's lately? Get in line. Photo: Tristan Williams
Saunter up to Dürty Nelly’s on a Wednesday night and you’ll see a gaggle of people crowding the entrance outside. It’s not that they can’t get in—they’re just taking a breather, chatting with friends, maybe having a smoke before they plunge back into the chaos inside. In the parking lot, you might hear a drunken diva blaring through a Kesha song at karaoke, or a local band blowing the doors off. Dürty Nelly’s makes an explosive impression, and that’s before you’re blinded by the bright neon lights of its signature stage sign.
“I think the community loves our thriving dive-vibes,” says owner Jordan Brunk. “There’s nowhere else like Dürty Nelly’s.” He’s right: People flock to his pub for its party-time atmosphere, and its friendly staff make sure that party rages until the clock strikes midnight.
Since COVID restrictions started easing up, Brunk has been determined to bring more live music to Dürty Nelly’s. In the spring of 2021, he hired Koda Kerl to manage the bar’s bookings, in part to emulate the casual live-music setup at Brunk’s other bar and restaurant, Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar. At Nelly’s, Kerl and Brunk have launched a “curated writer showcase,” and expanded their performance space from the single neon-lit indoor stage to an additional pickup truck bed outside.
The pub’s shift toward being a live music venue has caused some locals to declare the bar’s going through a renaissance. But while Brunk can’t vouch for the pub’s heyday—“Dürty Nelly’s is older than I am,” he says, “and the origin story is best told by our lovely happy hour regulars that have been there since day one”—he does believe that Nelly’s is “a safe haven for the talented van people” now that bands are on the road again.
Kerl’s been a touring artist himself, with Chamomile and Whiskey, so he knows the value of smaller clubs like Nelly’s. And that know-how has helped him bring local talent to “Koda’s Corral,” including Adam Long, Emily Kresky, Kai Crowe-Getty, Rob Cheatham, Will Overman, and Kerl himself.
“We don’t have an enormous budget, but we’ve been gaining a reputation for being fun and an easy stop on the way to more lucrative shows,” Kerl says.
The bar’s booker has striven to keep things diverse, too, from the sounds to the crowds. Country, garage rock, and jangly jagged indie stand side by side on the calendar, and the bar has even hosted music video shoots for local bands. Sometimes the only things showgoers might have in common are a love for cheap drinks and great tunes.
“It’s fun to see people in their 70s hanging out with college kids and people of different tastes,” Kerl says. “That’s the kind of stuff that makes us proud and happy to be a part of the scene.”
David Levinson Wilk, TV writer and creator of the C-VILLE crossword puzzle, partnered with
a programmer and graphic designer to create a new web-based game, Initial Instinct, which you can play at initial-instinct.com. Supplied image.
The new browser-based game Initial Instinct hinges on a simple and elegant premise: Assign famous names to two random letters and rack up points under a time limit. Though the game is perfectly suited to an internet-connected smartphone, the idea for Initial Instinct actually dates back to designer David Levinson Wilk’s high school days. The creator of C-VILLE Weekly’s reader-favorite crossword puzzles (see page 33) says he and his friends would play a pencil-and-paper version of the game “constantly.”
“It became an obsession,” he says. “I’m fairly certain there were kids who cut class when there was a game going on in the hallway that they wanted to join.”
Today, Wilk is head writer on ABC’s “The $100,000 Pyramid” and “The Chase,” and he’s carried the game with him through his career, getting co-workers in the television world hooked on it, too. It wasn’t until a year ago that he discovered the potential to convert this childhood game to a digital experience through the website peoplebyinitials.com. The searchable database of “notable people via initials” takes any monogram and quickly draws up lists of names with corresponding Wikipedia pages. It seemed like the perfect system to power Wilk’s game, so he reached out to the programmer who built the website—the mononymic Enzo.
“I originally created this website to generate 100 initials for the Dominic number memory system,” says Enzo, in reference to a memory training system inspired by author and “memory champion” Dominic O’Brien. “David contacted me from that site and asked if I would be interested in developing a game with him based on the database of people.”
With Enzo on board as programmer, Wilk needed someone to handle the graphics. For that, he turned to his peers in television. Paul Stack, who builds games and graphics for “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” on Bravo, had been introduced to Wilk’s name game during his own time at “The $100,000 Pyramid.”
“David laid out the bones of how he wanted the game to play,” says Stack. “He had this idea to have dials, similar to ones on a briefcase, at the center of the letter choice. Taking that idea, I started working on visual layouts and timing.”
Wilk loved Stack’s minimalist designs. “When he first sent me a mockup of the spinning dials, it was thrilling,” says Wilk. “He made the site look clean, inviting, and supremely user-friendly.”
But what looked great as a visual design turned out to be a challenge on the programming side. Enzo says the most difficult thing to accomplish for Initial Instinct was taking the 3D spinning wheel animation video files and converting them to web code like HTML and JavaScript. The animation videos were smooth and included lighting effects that just didn’t translate well to the web without additional coding.
“We ended up using the Adobe [After Effects] videos, one video for each letter and left-right combination,” says Enzo. “Mobile devices, especially the iPhone try to delay playing or loading video in the background to save battery, so playing the animations exactly on time with the game timing was tricky.”
Of course, getting the 1.4 million names to pop up in the correct format—with the right occupation for each famous person—was its own challenge.
Wilk, Enzo, and Stack developed Initial Instinct over email, beginning with a prototype and building on consecutive versions.
“I quite like the iterative approach to development,” says Enzo. “I think this works well for a game where you can have many iterations of playing and improving.”
Ultimately, the team decided that Initial Instinct would work best as a web-based application rather than a downloadable mobile app. This enables phones and desktops to play the same game. Which means you won’t be getting the game off the App Store anytime soon.
“I have no desires, as yet, to develop an app,” says Wilk. “To me, getting people to enjoy Initial Instinct is really all about accessibility and, as it exists currently, anyone can play it at any time. … I think it’d make a very good game for a room of people for trivia night.”
For now, Wilk is busy on the picket lines, thanks to the Writers Guild of America strike, which began in May and escalated when SAG-AFTRA went on strike in July.
“While it’s no fun and not a single writer wants to be on strike,” says Wilk, “we have to do this now or the majority of us—and an even greater majority of future writers—won’t be able to have sustainable careers in TV and film.”
Canada is burning, and we’re all inhaling the smoke. The worst wildfire season in our northern neighbor’s history began in the spring and has raged into summer, with winds carrying smoke down the northeastern United States, along the East Coast, and into the Midwest. New York City took on a horrid red Martian hue as people were once again advised to mask up and stay indoors. More than a dozen states, plus Washington, D.C., have been under National Weather Service air quality warnings simultaneously. And at one point in late June, Chicago and Detroit shared the dubious honor of experiencing the worst air quality on the planet.
The wildfires aren’t just a North American problem, though. Almost as soon as they began, the smoke made its way across the Atlantic to Northern Europe, drifting through Scandinavia and even hazing up the Western European sky.
The smoke’s descent on Charlottesville has been markedly less apocalyptic than in Washington, D.C., or New York, but the blanketing haze has still altered the course of our daily lives. Air quality changes day to day, and on the worst afternoons you can see the haze hanging over the city like a gritty smog. Some days, you can even taste it.
“Sigh,” wrote one user on the Charlottesville subreddit. “So over it.”
The wildfire smoke may be hazing up our view of the mountains, but that’s the least of our problems. Breathing it in can be dangerous. The smoke contains particulate matter harmful to our bodies, which when inhaled gets deep into our lungs and affects the way oxygen enters our bloodstream and how carbon dioxide exits.
Both the National Weather Service and the City of Charlottesville look at the Air Quality Index to judge when air pollution reaches unsafe levels. The AQI takes the form of a color-coded dial, with green indicating “good” air quality, onto yellow (“moderate”), and worsening conditions represented by orange, red, purple, and maroon.
This summer, the city made it all the way to purple—“very unhealthy.” That was on June 8, when Charlottesville Parks & Recreation canceled all afternoon outdoor activities. June 29 saw the Office of Emergency Management issue a notice that air quality levels were a notch lower—“unhealthy”—and on July 17, the city warned that the air was at least hazardous for sensitive groups, and that “those with pre-existing conditions may experience health effects and should limit their time outdoors.”
Susan Kruse, executive director of the Community Climate Collaborative, believes that “climate is connected to everything,” and sees the drifting smoke from the Canadian wildfires as proof that it affects everybody. Photo by Community Climate Collaborative.
Just because the AQI seems to have dropped from the most alarming levels doesn’t mean we should be less vigilant with our respiratory health. Dr. Kyle Enfield, a pulmonologist and medical director of the medical intensive care unit at UVA Health, told UVA Today in June that even if you don’t have a condition like asthma, “poor air quality increases hospitalizations and health care visits.”
Are we all going to develop chronic ailments from the smoke? Not necessarily, said Enfield. You’d have to be breathing this stuff for months or even years. But temporary exposure, like that of this smoky summer, can up your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, or being hospitalized for a respiratory illness.
That’s where the familiar mantra comes in—mask up outside and stay indoors. But it’s more complicated than protecting ourselves from a human-spread virus. The kind of mask matters—N95, naturally—but even in our homes, the air we breathe is affected by what’s going on outside (like, say, massive wildfires). Using air filters with a “MERV” rating of 8 or higher can help, according to Enfield. The city has warned residents to “keep any doors, windows, and fireplaces shut to reduce fine particle build-up indoors,” and recommended running your air conditioning on a recirculation setting.
Experts expect that this ebb and flow of smoke, where some days may be clearer and less polluted than others, will continue for the rest of the summer. As Canada has experienced a long period of drought and higher than average temperatures, the soil, trees, and vegetation have all dried out. And dry heat brings on lightning. Thus, fires.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, as of July 23, more than 1,000 wildfires are burning across Canada, and while hundreds are being batted back by firefighters to protect at-risk communities, the majority are considered out of control and being left to burn. Some fires are in remote locations, and Canadian officials say it would be too expensive to combat them.
Dr. Kyle Enfield, pulmonologist and medical director of the medical ICU at UVA Health, says any amount of exposure to smoke can lead to health complications. Photo by UVA Health.
While firefighters from at least 10 countries, including the U.S. and Mexico, are helping in Canada, affected international communities are left to deal with the resulting smoke. In Charlottesville, some believe this crisis has put the reality and effects of climate change directly on the public’s doorstep.
“It’s like when there used to be smoking and non-smoking sections in a restaurant. Just because you sat in the non-smoking section didn’t mean that you didn’t have smoke,” says Susan Kruse, executive director of the Community Climate Collaborative. “It’s a tangible example that climate impact is global. Just because you don’t have some of the problems that other places do doesn’t mean you won’t be impacted by them.”
“This is it, right? This is climate change,” says Emily Irvine, the city’s climate protection program manager. “It’s happening right here and right now. … This is not gonna get any better until we stop dumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.”
Irvine says that while working on the climate change risk and vulnerability assessment for the city a few years ago, “wildfire smoke didn’t even come up as a hazard that we’re looking at in our area.” (Though it is a small risk in Albemarle County, which has more tracts of forest.)
“There’s just not the data and modeling on it,” she says. “It’s not what we think of as an acute or a chronic climate hazard traditionally.”
But Irvine says that the events of this hazy summer have prompted the city and county to push wildfire smoke up on their list of climate crises to prepare for. Smoke is also a new topic that they want to engage the public with during this fall’s planned meetings on adapting to and building resilience to climate change.
For those who are wondering what they can do to alleviate the effects of the climate crisis—especially in a small town—Irvine says that help can often take the form of setting an example.
Emily Irvine, Charlottesville’s climate protection program manager, says the city and county now consider wildfire smoke from other localities to be a climate hazard to prepare for. Photo by Eze Amos.
“Climate change is a collective action problem,” she says. “When we work here locally as a community to lower our emissions, and also to adapt to the climate disruptions that are coming because of the warming that’s already happened, we are contributing and doing our part to the global effort to address this issue.”
Irvine remains optimistic even now. Here at home, the city plans to launch a website on the in-progress climate adaptation plan in the next few weeks, and begin public engagement as early as September. While fires rage across Canada, she sees a bright—and hopefully less hazy—future for our city.
“Charlottesville, for being such a small community,” says Irvine, “is really being forward-thinking about how to address these issues.”
UVA student Abdallah Maher Aljerjawi is the recipient of a full-ride scholarship, and has advocated for immigrants’ rights and changes to the country’s educational system. Supplied photo.
The Supreme Court shook the academic world June 29 when it ruled that the use of affirmative action at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina was unconstitutional. The court was starkly split along ideological lines in both cases.
Students at the University of Virginia who support race-conscious admissions policies had long anticipated the court’s verdict, and had spoken out ahead of the decision. Abdallah Maher Aljerjawi wrote an open letter to the student body, urging his peers to unite and protect affirmative action.
“Affirmative action is a core aspect of holistic admissions as it cares about the experiences shaping students,” writes Aljerjawi, a third-year nursing student. “Yet, simultaneously, the Supreme Court contradicts it by failing to recognize that nothing could shape an individual more profoundly than their own race.”
In his letter, Aljerjawi reflects on his immigration to the U.S. from Gaza, and the hurdles he’s subsequently faced in his life, education, and career.
“Though I have only been in America for five short years since I immigrated, I can confidently assert that being a minority in America presents a web of intricate and intertwined challenges,” he writes. “Obstacles in every facet of life, including racism, economic hardships, language barriers, and the ever-present fear of racial profiling during routine traffic stops—all of which compound. How can we turn a blind eye to race’s role when it is so rooted in these experiences?”
Fellow third-year Syrell Grier says even though he was anticipating the court would reject affirmative action, it still came as a shock to him and his fellow students.
“You come to expect it with this Supreme Court now,” he says. “It’s sad and heartbreaking.”
Grier, an economics major, Jefferson and Echols Scholar, and founder of the Black Economic Empowerment Society, believes he was likely a beneficiary of affirmative action in his application to UVA.
“I came from a high school in Woodbridge, Virginia, called Gar-Field High School, and it’s majority low-income, so a lot of kids just don’t really branch out for those amazing opportunities like they should,” he says.
Grier notes that, though he did well academically at Gar-Field, having access to the support and opportunities available at UVA helped make him a better student. “If I were to go to an institution that’s not as high ranking, I might not have had those same resources and been able to sprout and develop into the person I am today. That’s the benefit of having affirmative action in place.”
The Supreme Court’s decision has also affected prospective students. Ammar Aljerjawr, a high school junior from Houston, Texas, was eyeing UVA as his top pick for college and visited Grounds in June. He’s worried that, without race-conscious admissions policies in place, the challenges he’s faced as a Palestinian immigrant may not be considered in his application.
Taking down affirmative action “will make my [acceptance] chances lower,” he says, “and will make me work twice as hard or three times as hard to just be the same level as others.”
Although UVA has not made a formal decision on how to handle a post-affirmative action admissions process, President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom delivered a joint statement in which they declared they will “of course continue to follow the law. We will also continue to do everything within our legal authority to recruit and admit a class of students who are diverse across every possible dimension and to make every student feel welcome and included here at UVA.”
The climate crisis is on our doorstep, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Area environmental leaders are optimistic about our community’s ability to tackle the problems of today, and hopeful that the next generation will take up the cause as well. For this year’s Power Issue, we spoke with nine people across industries, from organizations big and small, to learn what they’re doing to make Charlottesville a model for cities around the world.
The Unifier
Susan Kruse Executive Director | Community Climate Collaborative
Supplied photo.
Charlottesville is on the clock: The city’s Climate Action Plan hinges on a mandate to slice our greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030, and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. It seems daunting, but Susan Kruse, executive director of the Community Climate Collaborative, thinks that a united Charlottesville can achieve that goal—and create a better city in the process.
“Climate is connected to everything,” says Kruse, who has been working to protect the environment and fight for climate justice for nearly 30 years. Equity and the environment are entangled, she explains. Without affordable housing, for instance, “we create systems that create car dependencies and push people away from cities.”
“That’s a justice issue,” says Kruse. “That’s a climate issue.”
But the executive director of C3 is optimistic that Charlottesville can not only achieve its own climate goals, but serve as a model for other cities in Virginia, where most residents live in urban and suburban communities. And she’s willing to unite with unlikely partners, like local petroleum supplier Tiger Fuel, to realize that common goal.
“A lot of environmental groups would not work with a fuel company,” says Kruse. “If we’re looking at climate as math, they have to cut their emissions in half just like I do. So, if they’re willing to do that work, then let’s step forward.”
As C3 looks to expand its work into Richmond, Kruse recognizes that many of the climate justice challenges Charlottesville faces are shared by the capital of the commonwealth. But she trusts that broad support for change is there.
“People really want to do the right thing across the board, but most people don’t know where to start, and that is where we come in,” says Kruse. “That is where we can be helpful.”
The Collector
Sarah Sweet Founder | The Scrappy Elephant
Photo by Rachel Wilson.
Nothing goes to waste at The Scrappy Elephant. Sarah Sweet’s creative reuse center collects used arts and crafts supplies to keep them out of landfills, and sells them to the community at as low a cost as possible to ensure more people can afford to make art.
“I’m a former art teacher and an artist myself,” says Sweet, “so I know how healing art is for the soul. And we’re all very stressed right now.”
In May, Sweet’s shop took in more than 5,000 pounds of items. The Scrappy Elephant has accepted all sorts of supplies, including some bulkier machinery like sewing machines and a printing press, giving them a chance at a new life on the sales floor or in the shop’s rentable studio space.
“I’ve always been very conscientious about the environment,” says Sweet, who credits the birth of her daughter as a point of inspiration. “Having her kind of turned that whole climate change thing into, ‘This is scary, and I’m bringing a human into this, and what kind of future is she going to have?’”
But it was a trip to Nashville that sparked the idea for a store. There, she read an article about a creative reuse center—the first time she’d heard the term—and became “obsessed” with the idea. She drove to every creative reuse center she could find, even calling ones that were out of the way, to learn how to make one of her own. And with the Community Investment Collaborative, a 16-week program on how to start a small business, she was able to learn how to make her idea a reality. She first tested a pop-up location in the summer of 2020, which turned out to be the perfect timing.
“Honestly, during COVID, a lot of people took up crafting because they were stuck at home,” she says. “And then a lot of people were purging their home to make space for home offices, so it kind of aligned.”
What’s next? Sweet hopes to eventually create a space where artists can sell their artwork.
The Mender
Gabriela Romo Founder | Refemme
Supplied photo.
When Gabriela Romo won the $10,000 top prize at the Piedmont Pitch Night this spring, capping off a 10-week program with more than 70 entrepreneurs, she knew it was just the beginning of a long journey.
“Now I feel like the real work is coming,” she says.
Romo won with her idea for Refemme, what she calls a “circular business” that combats the world’s fast fashion predicament by trying to “change the linear model of take, make, and waste, to take, make, reuse, repair, repurpose.” At Refemme, anyone can get their clothing mended—or even learn how to do the job themselves through mending workshops. With so much textile waste, Romo hopes that her business will encourage people to extend the life of their clothes and keep repairable items and reusable garments out of the trash bin.
Romo was inspired by her time spent working in a thrift store when she first arrived in Charlottesville. There, she noticed how many almost-new items of clothing were being donated, or just clothing missing a single button. And not everything donated even made it to the sales floor. “I just realized that people did not know how to take care of those small flaws,” she says.
With the influx of cash she won this year, Romo decided that building a storefront isn’t “the smart thing to do” for her business right now. Instead, she’s developed an idea for a mending drop-off system: a parcel box to drop off clothes to be mended, where customers can pick them up one week later. She plans to launch that initiative in the fall, in partnership with Darling x Dashing, The Scrappy Elephant, and Bluebird & Co.
“I have reworked close to 300 garments at this point, that have saved almost 100,000 liters of water,” she says, adding that a 10-minute stitch makes a huge difference, and makes her feel helpful. “I’m just providing a solution for a community that really craves it.”
The Tree Steward
Kathy Nepote Project Committee Chair | Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards
Photo by Eze Amos.
Kathy Nepote is a veterinarian who grew up on a farm. She knows crops, she knows animals—but when she moved to Charlottesville in 2016, she “knew squat about trees.”
So she took a course with the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards and fell in love with the community. Now, she’s the project committee chair for CATS, where she helps to identify which sites the organization will work at and what work it’ll do. Recommendations for projects can come from the city, the county, or even from an individual CATS member, and can range from tree planting to invasive plant control.
Most recently, CATS planted 26 trees at Chris Greene Lake. And Nepote herself still gets out there to play her part.
“You get outside, you’re with your friends, you talk, and you do something that makes an impact,” she says.
Nepote says she does the work for a simple reason: She loves it, and it’s fun. But she knows that just planting trees isn’t enough. “Even more important is maintaining the tree canopy that we do have,” she says, as housing projects threaten to clear out large swaths of foliage. To that end, CATS is also an advocacy and awareness group that has written letters to halt disruptive construction projects.
But CATS relies on public and community partnerships to get the approval and assistance it needs to improve the city’s natural environment. From the City of Charlottesville, to the Tree Commission and the County of Albemarle, none of what CATS does would be possible without their help, says Nepote.
“We’re very fortunate to have very dedicated people. There’s people in Charlottesville who really do care about the environment,” she says. “So you have a great pool of people to pull from to get stuff done.”
The Green Attorney
Nate Benforado Senior Attorney | Southern Environmental Law Center
Photo by Stephanie Gross.
Environmental work is in Nate Benforado’s blood. His father worked at the EPA for more than 30 years, and growing up his family took regular camping trips to Shenandoah. So, when Benforado, an attorney and UVA alum, moved back to Charlottesville after spending years in private practice, he was driven to make a difference. Now, as a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, he feels like he’s using his power for good.
“I had a light-bulb moment,” he says. “I could take the career skills I have—going to court, persuading people you’re right—and actually use them for something I care about.”
Benforado considers the Charlottesville-based SELC to be a “powerhouse” in the Southeast, with more than 100 attorneys across six states and hundreds of staff members. As senior attorney, Benforado has personally led the SELC’s work on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a market-based mechanism that requires pollution producers to “buy” emissions allowances. Virginia was the first Southern state to join RGGI, thanks in no small part to Benforado’s years of work in the General Assembly trying to get it passed.
“We are a law firm, first and foremost,” says Benforado. “But we have so many tools to use. The lawsuit is always there, but we can be more creative with how we achieve progress.”
Recent efforts by state Republicans and Gov. Glenn Youngkin to withdraw from RGGI have pushed Benforado to jump back into the fight. But that doesn’t mean that he sees opposing forces as adversarial.
“We never sacrifice our mission, but we are very pragmatic in making progress,” he says. “So we are gonna work with anybody who we think can help us, and we will always try to find some common ground.”
The Gardener
Richard Morris Co-executive Director | Cultivate Charlottesville
Photo by Eze Amos.
“We believe that food is a human right,” says Richard Morris, co-executive director of Cultivate Charlottesville. That is the organization’s guiding philosophy, which Morris hopes the community will embrace. But he also wants to shore up support for the people who grow and harvest food in the community, as well as the idea that everyone deserves good food.
“[Charlottesville] is known as a foodie town,” he says. “But there’s also a lot of hunger here in Charlottesville. It’s not for lack of resources; Charlottesville has the resources to be a foodie town for all people.”
Morris’ mother was an “Alabama farm girl,” he says. Growing up in a Black working-class neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona, they always had a garden in the backyard. So, if someone ran short of food, his family’s home garden was ripe for the picking. “In that sense,” he says, “our garden was a community garden.”
Morris has worked as a graphic and software designer and developer across many different industries, from health care to aerospace, and through it all he’s always kept a garden of some sort. Working with Cultivate the last five years has felt like “coming full circle,” he says.
Though Morris is bidding farewell to the organization to pursue personal goals, studio art, and his own garden, he remains inspired by the next generation. Cultivate’s work with youth, through opportunities like an intern program where kids get to work in the gardens, and develop their leadership skills and cooperative skills, has allowed Morris to see how much energy and passion is waiting in the wings in Charlottesville.
“You plant a tree, and maybe you won’t be able to sit in the shade of that tree, but the next generation will,” he says. “And so that’s my goal.”
The Navigator
Emily Irvine Climate Protection Program Manager | City of Charlottesville
Photo by Eze Amos.
When it comes to achieving the city’s climate goals, Emily Irvine sees a future of grand possibility on the horizon. And as Charlottesville’s climate protection program manager, she’s devoted to getting all of us pointed in the same direction, envisioning the same picture of what a climate-ready city looks like.
The path forward for every person, organization, or business might be a little different, but part of Irvine’s job is to build relationships in the community and help everyone figure out how to journey down their individual path toward that big bright future.
“I like to say climate change is a collective action problem,” says Irvine. “So, it will take all of us. I really feel like there is transformative change potential in this work, and that is something that also makes it feel exciting and dynamic, and also hard.”
Irvine’s path to her current role was shaped, in part, by a different global crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed her to leave her job of nearly 15 years to care for her two school-aged children.
“Many women left their jobs at that time and I was among them,” she says. “Having that career break really gave me the opportunity to think critically about what I really wanted to be doing, and it gave me the opportunity to go back to school.”
Returning to school for a master’s in natural resources, with a focus on leadership for sustainability, put her on her own path toward tackling climate change full-time. Now, with the Climate Action Plan approved in January and so much federal investment in climate action, Irvine believes there’s never been a more exciting time to be involved.
“I get to get up every morning and do what I’m pretty obsessed with doing,” she says with a laugh. “Which is pretty wonderful.”
The Overseer
Andrea Trimble Sustainability Director | UVA’s Office for Sustainability
Supplied photo.
Andrea Trimble is the director of the Office for Sustainability at the University of Virginia, where she oversees various programs and initiatives that push the university toward its 2030 sustainability goals. That means she works in a wide variety of areas—from energy and waste to water—and with a broad range of people—students, staff, faculty, alumni, and more—to craft strategic plans and spur individual action.
It’s a far cry from when she started working in sustainability in higher education 17 years ago at Harvard. “Back in 2006,” says Trimble, “the idea of a ‘sustainable campus’ was very new.” But because she was once part of a team that had to advocate for aspects of campus sustainability that are common today, she learned a lot about managing change across a large organization, and creating a blueprint for other schools to follow. The incredible progress that has been made in the sustainability space since, and the support of UVA and Charlottesville, gives her hope for the future.
For Trimble, her work has always been driven by an appreciation for a community’s relationship with the natural world. Watching her hometown expand, seeing the loss of trees and a reliance on cars as new neighborhoods were developed, drove her to pursue an undergraduate degree in architecture and historic preservation.
But sustainability has also influenced her artistic work. Trimble’s place-based ink line drawings with watercolor examine how local communities are affected by the impacts of climate change—such as wildfires, sea level rise, and extreme heat.
“Drawing is so much about a way of seeing,” she says, “pausing to closely and quietly observe the details in the world around us, but also making connections to larger concepts. A lot of sustainability work is about paying attention to what is happening around us, understanding context and connections, and taking action—often creatively.”
The President
Mark Goodwin President/CEO | Apex Clean Energy
Supplied photo.
Mark Goodwin, president and CEO of Apex Clean Energy, believes in a holistic approach to sustainability and renewable energy. At Apex, employees are encouraged to shift to clean energy in their own lives through financial incentive programs for those who purchase electric vehicles, install solar panels at home, or avoid driving to work. Apex’s “mass-timber” headquarters is, naturally, made from green building materials and powered by solar energy.
Goodwin wants Apex to lead with their wind, solar, and storage facilities, energy resources, and green fuel tech—but he also wants Apex to lead by example.
“To make meaningful change, our entire community—from municipal governments to private citizens and organizations—must act on sustainability,” says Goodwin, who notes that Apex is a founding member of the Green Business Alliance, a coalition of Virginia companies that have collectively pledged to reduce their emissions by 45 percent by 2025.
But Goodwin also realizes that the fight against climate change is a multi-generational endeavor, and that preparing today’s youth to take up that responsibility should also be part of Apex’s mission. To that end, the company has developed an internship program open to applicants from across the country, offered tours of their headquarters, and designed an “experiential workshop” that introduces high schoolers to renewable energy. Apex has also launched new opportunities for HBCU students, such as a free, online course that highlights employment opportunities in the clean energy space, as well as the Ron Brown Scholar Program and the Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund.
“We’re focused on passing the baton to today’s youth—an inspired and engaged group that’s already proving stereotypes wrong,” says Goodwin. “Apex believes one of our roles in the energy transition is to inspire and equip this future workforce.”
Summer’s about to kick into high gear, and to help you avoid the risk of FOMO, we’ve put together a list of must-dos before the leaves start to turn.
Go soak yourself
Take the plunge at one of the area’s many watery attractions, like Mint Springs or Chris Greene Lake. Or head to Sugar Hollow and hike to Snake Hole or Blue Hole, and cool off with a refreshing dip once you get there. If you’ve got kids in tow, take them to one of Parks & Rec’s outdoor spray grounds: Tonsler Park, Forest Hills, Belmont, or Greenleaf.
Get high
It’s not just hot air—a balloon ride through our clear blue skies is the stuff that memories are made of. Monticello Country Ballooning, Blue Ridge Balloon, and more can send you soaring over the mountains and Shenandoah Valley. Monticello Country offers sunrise and sunset flights, but keep in mind that balloon flights don’t come cheap.
File photo.
Take a hike
Bring a partner—or a book from a public library—and hit the many trails open to nature-lovers around the city and nearby counties. Get lost (but not too lost) at Ragged Mountain Natural Area and Walnut Creek Park, or climb Humpback Rocks or another of the challenging ascents on the Appalachian Trail. Take in the scenery with friends, or post up with that book you brought. Just make sure to pack water and dress appropriately: You’ll be walking for a while.
Photo by Jack Looney.
Round the Corner
The Corner is a completely different scene after the students leave for the summer. Behold: Parking! Seating! Silence! Well, not complete silence—it’s still a lively and fun place to shop, eat, and walk, even when it’s not slammed with students. Take this opportunity to enjoy Bodo’s, Roots, and Boylan Heights before you have to endure the endless lines again.
Photo by Skyclad Aerial.
Pack a picnic
Charlottesville’s many vineyards and cideries (cider houses?) are the perfect venues for laying out a blanket and enjoying the view with some bevies and cheeses, meats, and other treats. Bring your own charcuterie board to Potter’s Craft Cider, Blenheim Vineyards, or Hazy Mountain (to name a few!), or partake in what’s on offer on-site (hello, food trucks). There’s nothing like sipping cider or wine straight from the source.
Photo by Sanjay Suchak.
Hit up the farmers’ markets
All summer long, local vendors bring their seasonal produce, yummy baked goods, mouthwatering meals, and eye-catching arts and crafts to our many area farmers’ markets. You might already be familiar with the Charlottesville City Market and the IX Art Park market, both held on Saturday morning, but did you know about the Saturday Albemarle Farmers’ Market at Hollymead Town Center? Or the Meade Park Farmers in the Park on Wednesday afternoon? There’re plenty of places in and around town to satisfy your craving for fresh produce and style.
Charlottesville City Market. Photo by Skyclad Aerial.
Enjoy some cold comfort
Pick your own strawberries at Chiles Family Orchards, or buy pre-picked peaches and cherries—and don’t neglect the orchard’s peach ice cream and peach cider donuts. Or, combine the two with a “dondae,” a sundae topped with a donut. Berries, peaches, and cherries are available throughout the summer, so there’s no reason not to savor the flavors.
Photo by Tristan Williams.
Listen up
A Charlottesville mainstay for decades, Fridays After Five rocks the Ting Pavilion every week. For a perfect start to your weekend, head to the Downtown Mall after work any Friday through September 8 to enjoy the best musicians the area has to offer (for free!). Plus, meet the volunteers at concession stands who work the event on behalf of local nonprofits.
Photo by Chris Pecorero.
Reach for the stars
On the first and third Fridays of every month, the Leander McCormick Observatory is open to the public for spectacular stargazing. Take in the cosmic sights through clear summer skies via the 26-inch McCormick refractor telescope. You can also hear astronomer presentations and take a tour of the facility. Just make sure to register first (tickets are free).
Photo by Jack Looney.
Flex your green thumb
This is the year you’ll keep all your plants alive—right? Sunny summer days are the perfect time to adopt a green friend. Fifth Season is a great place to pick up plants, seeds, and supplies, or learn from its knowledgeable staff, while the new Plant Based Studio on the Downtown Mall will teach you how to make your own terrariums.
File photo.
Honorable mentions
Walk the Blue Ridge Tunnel.
Tour the gardens and grounds at Monticello and James Monroe’s Highland.
See a drag show at The Southern or Botanical Fare.
Paddle down the Rivanna.
Enjoy a blockbuster (or an indie gem) in an air-conditioned theater.
Since 2004, Kirby Hutto has been general manager of the Charlottesville Pavilion, where he and his team have hosted legendary musicians and world leaders. Now, he’s ready to retire. Photo by Tristan Williams.
Kirby Hutto has been involved with the Ting Pavilion since ground was broken for the downtown venue in 2004. Together with his crew, he’s hosted James Brown, Loretta Lynn, Bruce Springsteen, former President Barack Obama, and the Dalai Lama, to name just a few. Now, the Pavilion’s general manager is passing the torch and stepping into the crowd.
“I’m 65. I’ve got a Medicare card, man,” says Hutto. “It’s time to start enjoying everything that I’ve worked so hard for.”
Hutto’s career was born out of a love for live music. He traces the spark to 1976, when he was a first-year at the University of Virginia. “Back in the day, when the drinking age was 18,” he says, “you would go to have dinner at Observatory Hill Dining Hall and there would be kegs and a band playing outside on the Lawn.”
But his first shot at managing live shows didn’t come until 1992, when he went to work for Fridays After Five, Charlottesville’s longrunning concert series. There, he transitioned the Fridays shows from booking corporate bands—“You know, wedding bands that would come into town. They had no local following.”—to tapping into outstanding local talent such as Charlie Pastorfield and The Believers, Wolves of Azure, TR3, The Casuals, bands that were “big in their time.” He remembers how, in 1995, The Subdudes accidentally drove to Charlotte, North Carolina, on the day of the concert while it was pouring rain in Charlottesville.
At FAF, Hutto learned to make sure the show went on no matter what chaos was unfolding backstage. That lesson has served him well in his GM role at the Pavilion.
“You’re really, really fighting the good fight to make things happen,” he says. “And ideally, from the patron’s point of view, all they know is they came to a great show.”
In 1996, Hutto left Fridays After Five for more steady work in the corporate world. But soon, he caught wind that Coran Capshaw was looking to build an amphitheater on the Downtown Mall. Hutto contacted a good friend who worked for Capshaw, and asked to pass along a message, almost as a joke: “If you need somebody to run that amphitheater, tell him to give me a call.”
Months later, he got that call. “Next thing you know, I’m having dinner with Coran,” says Hutto.
At the Pavilion, Hutto has dealt with every manner of touring artist, from the well-worn veterans of the road to the discombobulated traveling acts that haven’t heard of an input list before. But regardless of a performer’s crew size or experience, he and his staff—many of whom have been with Hutto for five to 15 years—have worked tirelessly to ensure visiting musicians have a memorable time in Charlottesville.
“I know from talking with other venues, artist hospitality can be an afterthought,” says Hutto, who credits Allie Leffler, the Pavilion’s artist hospitality manager, for the effusive praise performers have for the venue. “And that’s how you, A, make an artist want to come back, but, B, it’s also how you sort of compensate for some of the challenges that we know our venue presents.”
The urban nature of the Pavilion’s downtown location means that space to unload gear is limited—and therefore that process takes much longer—but artists also have quick access to the amenities of the mall and surrounding attractions. David Byrne brought his mountain bike to town, and Pavilion staff pointed him to the Rivanna Trail. Neko Case went on a shopping spree.
“A lot of artists will take their day off here,” says Hutto.
That pride in the Pavilion’s situation in the center of Charlottesville extends to the non-musical events Hutto and his team book, from high school graduations to the Eid prayer for the city’s Muslim community. He stresses that the Pavilion is city-owned—“It’s a public-private partnership”—and that the way the venue represents, promotes, and supports the community is the legacy he hopes to leave behind.
“We’ve created this special little place … there’s not a whole lot of them exactly like us around the country,” says Hutto. “We find that balance between the ticketed shows with the big names, the Fridays After Five with the local names, and then all of the community activities. And between those three buckets, we stay damn busy.”
Though Hutto is stepping from part-time involvement into retirement in May, he’ll remain a resource for his successor through the end of the year. The new GM, Jonathan Drolshagen, has managed venues such as The Southern and The Jefferson Theater, and he shadowed Hutto last year.
“I hope he’s gonna be able to thrive in it,” says Hutto.
Nursing students Crystal Zhang, Hunter Saunders, and Anna Linehan graduate with their BSN degrees from the UVA School of Nursing on May 20. Photo courtesy UVA School of Nursing.
Nursing students in the University of Virginia’s Class of 2023 have lived through the full breadth of the COVID-19 pandemic—from the first cases being detected overseas in 2019 to the end of the federal public health emergency in May. It’s been a long and rugged road for the entire world, but the nursing students experienced the past four years from a unique vantage point. The nature of their work and studies required them to come into direct contact with COVID patients, and to return to in-person learning sooner than students in other programs.
“We were very privileged students to have more classes in person,” says Anna Linehan, who graduates from UVA School of Nursing on May 20. “We can’t learn to put in a catheter without being in person. It just doesn’t work over Zoom.”
Fellow graduating senior Hunter Saunders served as a patient care technician in the medical intensive care unit at UVA Hospital before students were allowed to work with COVID patients during clinicals. Being immersed in that fast-moving environment, where “the [COVID] guidelines changed week to week,” says Saunders, was an invaluable experience.
“I learned so many aspects of patient care doing that,” he adds. “And I think that it was almost a little odd that hospital policy tended to keep nursing students out, because as soon as you graduate with that license, you don’t get held back from anything. You are in that situation fully.”
Crystal Zhang, another graduating senior, worked with COVID patients during her own clinical rotations. She remains vigilant about the virus. “For now, I just feel like it doesn’t hurt me to wear my mask all the time,” says Zhang. “I’m still feeling like all I can do right now is to protect myself. … Especially when we work with patients who are … immunocompromised.”
Hands-on work remains a key appeal of nursing for these students as they prepare to take their NCLEX licensure exams. Linehan initially wanted to be a physician’s assistant, and enrolled in UVA’s College of Arts and Sciences as a chemistry major. But when she saw that her friends in the School of Nursing were participating in clinicals and lab work as undergrads—and would graduate with a license to practice—she decided to transfer into the nursing program.
“Coming from the College of Arts and Sciences, I felt a lot of cutthroat-ness to get to the top,” says Linehan. “But I think everybody in nursing is here to support each other, and we all want to end up being nurses and support our peers to also become great nurses.”
Saunders identifies the support of the UVA community during the past four years as transcendent. “Whether it be COVID or gun violence, knowing how those feel first-hand … knowing how we’ve made it through and how we’ve been there for each other has been something that I think I’ll carry through into my adult life,” he says.
After graduation, the students will go their separate ways. Zhang will return to her alma mater to work in UVA Health’s medical ICU, while Saunders will move to Washington, D.C., to work at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the medical cardiovascular ICU. Linehan, who participated in Air Force ROTC all four years at UVA, is preparing to move across the country—first to training in San Antonio, Texas, before being stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California as an Air Force nurse.
Crossing the country will be a big next step, but Linehan says she’s excited. “I don’t really know what to expect, so I think that’s part of the fun in it.”
Even though Zhang will remain at UVA, this time as a staff member, she expresses that she’s going to miss “everything” about her undergraduate experience.
“I think I’m a quite lucky person. Everybody I’ve met since I came to the United States has been super nice,” she says. “I feel really supported the 11 years that I am here, and especially in UVA. Not just the nursing school, but in my clinical rotations, in my practicum.”
Moving north to a much more urban locale means Saunders will miss the easy access to nature that Charlottesville has. “Being able to just grab your group of friends and just say, ‘Hey, let’s go explore nature,’ and it’s a four minute drive maybe is something I think I’m gonna miss,” he says.
Marianne Baernholdt, dean of the UVA School of Nursing and the Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing, urged her students to stay in touch with each other.
“I still have people that I call up when things get tough,” she says. “The relationships you’ve formed here, keep them close.”
“Remember,” Baernholdt stressed to the three graduating students, “you can do anything in nursing.”
UVA first-year Alexander Halpern has developed an app that allows high school students to quickly report crises on school grounds. Photo by Eze Amos.
A University of Virginia first-year engineering student has developed a smartphone app that enables high school students to more efficiently alert administrators to crises on school grounds.
The Safeline app was built by Alexander Halpern, who designed the software around an anonymous reporting system. Using a map of their school, students can pinpoint specific locations to report incidents ranging from vandalism, fights, and mental distress, to strangers and active shooters.
The app is planned to roll out as a pilot this spring, free of charge, at a public high school in Connecticut, and as a beta at a private school in Virginia.
Halpern was inspired to create Safeline after experiencing the many lockdown drills that have become the norm at schools across the country. “As I matured, those 30 minutes of silence gave me time to grapple with the unnerving reality that school shootings had become a commonplace occurrence in our society,” he said in a press release.
“I started to think about what resources students could have in the event of an incident occurring at a school,” Halpern told C-VILLE. “I found that it could be really interesting to add an element of location-based reporting, because that could greatly reduce the incident response time.”
Students who download the Safeline app are presented with a blueprint of their school overlaid on a satellite image. In the event of a crisis scenario, users can tap a location on the map or simply report their phone location to indicate where an incident has occurred or is developing. School administration and security then receive instantaneous alerts through text or email notifications, in addition to a beeping sound if they have the Safeline Administrator Dashboard open.
Halpern says his app is designed to be anonymous, but, to prevent abuse, students must enter their phone number to log in.
“The reports will be anonymous in that their name is not tied to the report whatsoever,” says Halpern. “But if a student keeps abusing the service or keeps reporting incidents that are not actually occurring, the administration could try to figure out who the student is by their phone number or they could set limitations … on which students can report.”
Halpern began development of Safeline over the summer, before arriving at UVA in the fall. He built the prototype entirely by himself in his free time, using Meta’s React Native for the app and ReactJS for the Administrator Dashboard. Halpern fine-tuned the app during his first year at UVA between classes and on weekends.
The prototype was completed in about a month, after which he presented the project to the director of digital learning and technology for the Connecticut high school. He and the director have worked together for the past six months to further develop and pilot the app.
“I’ve been going back and forth with him for a long time,” says Halpern, “securing the Safeline platform, and making sure it’s secure to outside threats as well as upholding the concerns [and regulations] of a public school.”
A key feature of Safeline is its ability to facilitate swift and clear communication during potential active shooter situations. He personally experienced an active shooter scenario in November 2022, when three UVA student-athletes were shot and killed on Grounds, and UVA police urged students to “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.”
More than a dozen incidents of gun violence have already occurred at schools and universities across the United States since the start of 2023, including a deadly shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville and another at Michigan State University. According to an article in The Washington Post last updated on April 3, 377 school shootings have happened in the United States since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999—and 2022’s 46 school shootings marked the highest annual total across that same timespan.
Halpern says that he is committed to stopping gun violence in schools nationwide.
“It would be amazing for [Safeline] to be in thousands of schools across the country, and helping students to be able to play a role in keeping their school environment safe and potentially saving lives across the country,” he says. “That would be the ideal goal.”
The app is currently on iOS devices only but will be available on Android soon. To learn more, visit yoursafeline.com.
Former president Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in late March, which has boosted his popularity among Republican primary voters. He now leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in polls by 30 percent. Photo by Gage Skidmore / CC Flickr.
At the tail end of March, Donald J. Trump became the first U.S. president to be indicted for an alleged criminal offense.
The historic news dropped late on a Thursday afternoon. But over at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, J. Miles Coleman was thinking, “Okay, they couldn’t have waited until Monday?”
Trump’s indictment, both in its dramatic leadup and after its bombshell delivery by the vote of a grand jury, has exploded American politics. It torpedoed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gains on Trump in primary polls, and made a martyr of the former president that has boosted his popularity among Republican voters. “I think this whole episode shows that [Trump] is very well in his prime,” says Coleman, “at least in terms of driving a media narrative.”
The indictment is the latest development in a years-long investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into hush money allegedly paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with the former president in 2006. To squash a potential tabloid story about this, Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen sent money to Daniels in 2016, which landed Cohen in prison for three years. Cohen said Trump directed him to write the check, and Trump’s reimbursement for his lawyer’s “legal fees” is what prosecutors believe amounts to a falsification of business records—a misdemeanor in New York.
Despite the scandalous nature of this case, Trump has rode this wave of renewed national attention to reclaim the political spotlight. Coleman points to a recent Quinnipiac poll that found that, while the majority of Americans believe criminal charges should bar Trump from running in 2024, 75 percent of Republicans believe that Trump’s charges shouldn’t disqualify him from a shot at a second term. A late-March Fox News poll also showed Trump leading DeSantis by 30 percent among Republican primary voters, up from 15 percent in February.
It’s clear that the spectacle of Trump’s indictment has been a boon for the former president, but that leaves his challengers in a tough spot.
“Those other competitors have to walk this real fine line where if they’re too critical of Trump, they’re gonna have those big names in Trump world say, ‘He’s rooting against us just like the Democrats are.’ Where if you hug Trump too tightly, then it’s like, ‘Well, if he’s so great, why would we want you instead?’” says Coleman. “It’s almost like the Republican candidates haven’t really learned much since 2016.”
Coleman doesn’t consider the New York case to be as serious as Trump’s other case in Georgia—which alleges the former president participated in election interference in 2020. But if Trump shrugs off his charges in Manhattan, that could further secure support for his ’24 run.
“Let’s say we go through with this [case] … and he ends up being acquitted,” he says. “It’s kind of like after his first and second impeachments, where at every rally he’d talk about how he was right and how he was vindicated. That’s something I could see him running with if he’s cleared of this.”
